Christopher Moynihan as Brian Chubb, Harry Shearer as Victor Allan Miller, Catherine O'Hara as Marilyn Hack and Parker Posey as Callie Webb in director Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration.
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What seemed like a brilliant one-off -- "Waiting for Guffman" (1997) -- has turned out to be the launching point for a significant body of work. Since then, writer-director Christopher Guest, in collaboration with screenwriter Eugene Levy, has made three more comedies, "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind" and now "For Your Consideration," all featuring a highly original brand of absurdist humor and big ensembles. Each film explores the manners and mores of some odd slice of American life.

The odd slice this time is Hollywood, and perhaps because the subject is close to home, there's a slightly different tone to "For Your Consideration." Unlike the preceding movies, it is not a mock documentary. Further, there's a just-perceptible edge to it, a hint of seriousness and even anger beneath the surface. In terms of style, it has a family relationship with its recent predecessors, but in terms of attitude, it recalls an earlier Guest film, "The Big Picture" (1989), about the artistic compromises of a young filmmaker.

At the center of the ensemble is Catherine O'Hara as Marilyn, a matronly character actress who has been kicking around for 30 years doing great work but still goes unrecognized when she shows up at the studio gate every morning. She's making a holiday film, "Home for Purim," a period piece about a Jewish family in the South.

It's a low-budget picture with a bunch of minor actors -- but not minor in terms of talent, just reputation. Parker Posey plays an ingenue recovering from the bad reviews she got from her recent one-woman show, "No Penis Intended." Harry Shearer, in his most distinct showcase to date, plays Victor, an accomplished veteran actor who is nonetheless best known for playing a human hot dog in TV commercials.

The "Home for Purim" set finds a humble, happy ensemble headed by Guest as the director, a slovenly guy with a weary, New York Jewish manner. It's an impressive piece of character work. Guest gives us a particular type of personality: laid back, blithe and careless but commanding, someone we've all seen but perhaps never onscreen.

Then temptation intrudes in the form of a Web site claiming that Marilyn looks like a contender for an Oscar nomination. This is followed by more buzz that the other actress (Posey) and maybe Victor are headed for Oscar nominations. Suddenly, everything changes as people start feeling the possibility of their dreams coming within reach.

This setup provides many opportunities for humor, most of a pointed variety. Victor is treated like a loser by his disingenuous agent (Levy), and then as if he's somebody once the Oscar buzz begins. As soon as the movie begins to generate interest, the studio head (Ricky Gervais) comes in to tamper with the script.

Guest and Levy skewer the machinery of hype, from the lowbrow glitz of "Entertainment Tonight" to the late-night sobriety of "The Charlie Rose Show." Rose (Mark Harelik) himself is nicely parodied in a bit in which he keeps asking long questions and never allows his guests to respond.

The movie-within-the-movie scenes are pure fun, with the characters all using Yiddish expressions while talking in Southern accents. But that's just cute stuff. "For Your Consideration" becomes more effective as it gets more cutting. The transformation of Marilyn -- I won't go into detail -- has a special significance. O'Hara makes sense of a middle-age woman's journey from wan acceptance to grotesque need, creating a funny and tragic spectacle. People really need to notice what she does in this film. This is not a tossed-off performance, but one that's observed, explored and felt -- acting of a high order.

The vanity of human wishes. The pain of ambition. The hard death of dreams. These notions have run through Guest's other films, but they reach flood tide here. Some people may be put off that "For Your Consideration" lands in a serious place. But I see it as evidence of an expanding vision, of continued artistic growth.

-- Advisory: This film contains some lewd humor and sexual situations.